In today’s fast-paced and technology-driven world, the role of facility managers is rapidly evolving, becoming more strategic and encompassing a broader scope of responsibilities. Gone are the days of simply managing work orders and third-party vendors. Nowadays, facility managers are tasked with streamlining workflows to ensure uninterrupted operations and leveraging the right tools for overall operational effectiveness. However, a few standard practices can hinder you from embracing this evolution and realizing your potential as a value provider. In this article, we will explore three crucial practices that you should steer clear of today as a facility manager.
Living in chaos with multiple platforms:
Facility managers rely on multiple-point solutions to manage their data, resulting in scattered information across emails, excel sheets, and other disparate systems. This fragmented approach can lead to confusion, errors, and a chaotic work environment. Losing track of important facility information, such as maintenance schedules, work orders, and equipment details, when stored in different places will impede your ability to make data-driven decisions. This will eventually lead to increased downtime, equipment failures, and potential safety hazards.
Adopting a unified platform can centralize your data by having all relevant information available in one place without the hassle of switching between different tools. This will improve overall efficiency, increase cost savings, optimize resources, and give you a clear overview of what’s happening with your facilities.
Losing control of your CMMS as a Facility Manager:
Facility managers often encounter situations where they have to configure workflows within their CMMS. While it may seem easier to ask for help from IT or a service provider, doing this can lead to a loss of control over your own processes, decreased autonomy, and reduced productivity. As a facility manager, you possess an in-depth understanding of your facility’s specific needs, making you the most qualified person to configure workflows efficiently and effectively. Relying on external assistance for managing your workflows can lead to delays in implementing changes, errors, and inefficiencies.
To take charge of your CMMS, all you need to do is utilize a no-code tool that empowers you to configure workflows intuitively and efficiently without having to know how to code. Taking ownership of your CMMS allows you to make quick adjustments, add new features, or modify existing workflows to facilitate seamless maintenance operations. Remember, your CMMS should be a system of action that simplifies your work and makes your life easier, not one that adds complexity and requires constant IT intervention.
Firefighting instead of future-proofing:
Unfortunately, many facility managers are trying to solve their O&M problems after they have occurred rather than implementing proactive maintenance strategies. If you find yourself constantly reacting to asset failures instead of preventing them, it’s a sign that your CMMS might not be fulfilling its potential. Reactive maintenance for your facilities is not only stressful and time-consuming, but it also often leads to increased asset downtime, higher repair costs, and compromised operational efficiency.
Your CMMS should be giving you real-time insights and predictive analytics to identify trends and help you chart out a proactive action plan. Adopting a proactive approach can steer your facility towards long-term goals, anticipate and mitigate risks, and enable you to make data-driven decisions to stay ahead in the modern operations era.
To excel as a facility manager in today’s evolving landscape requires embracing practices that enable you to provide strategic value to your organization. When you leverage the right technology and harness the true potential of your CMMS, you can easily break free from the tactical & mundane, and unlock your full potential as a facility manager.
Nivedha Sridhar
Nivedha Sridhar is the Director of Marketing and a founding team member at Facilio Inc., an enterprise-wide facilities O&M software platform provider headquartered in New York. Nivedha’s career spans over 8 years of product, growth, and corporate marketing focused on enterprise IoT software and business cloud applications. Before starting with Facilio in 2017, she managed Global Marketing for an enterprise brand at Zoho Corporation.
When you ask front line supervisors or team leaders if all people in their teams are performing to the same standards or if some are doing more work and achieving more results than others, you will often get the same answer. All over the world, the most common answer, after some analysis, verifies that about 30% of the people do 70% of the work.
When you ask front line supervisors or team leaders if all people in their teams are performing to the same standards or if some are doing more work and achieving more results than others, you will often get the same answer. All over the world, the most common answer, after some analysis, verifies that about 30% of the people do 70% of the work.
Unfettered expression and spiritual satisfaction? How does this relate to managing a maintenance department, especially one in the U.S. Postal Service? Open your mind. Take a page from the Zen Buddhist monks who preach: When you are quiet and listen, you become aware of sounds not normally heard. USPS maintenance leaders are listening and beginning to understand that maintenance success doesn't come through closed minds and closed doors.
Unfettered expression and spiritual satisfaction? How does this relate to managing a maintenance department, especially one in the U.S. Postal Service? Open your mind. Take a page from the Zen Buddhist monks who preach: When you are quiet and listen, you become aware of sounds not normally heard. USPS maintenance leaders are listening and beginning to understand that maintenance success doesn't come through closed minds and closed doors.
It is not uncommon that many reliability and maintenance improvement initiatives fail to deliver expected results. Why is it so? Some of the most common causes I have observed include:
It is not uncommon that many reliability and maintenance improvement initiatives fail to deliver expected results. Why is it so? Some of the most common causes I have observed include:
Why do improvement efforts fail or perhaps not sustain the gains? There are many reasons, but those most often stated are “lack of commitment” and not “following the process”. But why is there lack of commitment, and why aren’t processes followed? Here are a few of the reasons that I’ve seen:
Why do improvement efforts fail or perhaps not sustain the gains? There are many reasons, but those most often stated are “lack of commitment” and not “following the process”. But why is there lack of commitment, and why aren’t processes followed? Here are a few of the reasons that I’ve seen:
When a piece of production machinery broke down at the Whirlpool plant in Findlay, Ohio, several years back, it was accepted practice for the machine operator to call maintenance and then sit back and wait for the problem to be fixed. Critical information and knowledge was not shared between the operator and maintenance technician. Like many companies, these workers were stuck in traditional roles - operators run the machines, maintenance fixes the machines, and the two do not cross. As a result, productivity opportunities were missed.
When a piece of production machinery broke down at the Whirlpool plant in Findlay, Ohio, several years back, it was accepted practice for the machine operator to call maintenance and then sit back and wait for the problem to be fixed. Critical information and knowledge was not shared between the operator and maintenance technician. Like many companies, these workers were stuck in traditional roles - operators run the machines, maintenance fixes the machines, and the two do not cross. As a result, productivity opportunities were missed.
Many managers are unaware that best-in-class companies routinely design-out maintenance at the inception of a project. That, clearly, is the first key to highest equipment reliability and plant profitability. Whenever maintenance events occur as time goes on, the real industry leaders see every one of these events as an opportunity to upgrade. Indeed, upgrading is the second key, and upgrading is the job of highly trained, well-organized, knowledgeable reliability professionals.
Many managers are unaware that best-in-class companies routinely design-out maintenance at the inception of a project. That, clearly, is the first key to highest equipment reliability and plant profitability. Whenever maintenance events occur as time goes on, the real industry leaders see every one of these events as an opportunity to upgrade. Indeed, upgrading is the second key, and upgrading is the job of highly trained, well-organized, knowledgeable reliability professionals.
The true translation — might it be proper to say a new and improved translation? — is being used today by Cervecería Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, one of the largest brewers of beer in Latin America. Known throughout this company as Mantenimiento Alto Desempeño (MAD), or translated as High-Performance Maintenance, the concept of TPM is alive and well at the company's six plants in Mexico. Perhaps the best example is at CCM's brewery in Tecate, located a short drive from the U.S.-Mexico border on the Baja California peninsula.
The true translation — might it be proper to say a new and improved translation? — is being used today by Cervecería Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma, one of the largest brewers of beer in Latin America. Known throughout this company as Mantenimiento Alto Desempeño (MAD), or translated as High-Performance Maintenance, the concept of TPM is alive and well at the company's six plants in Mexico. Perhaps the best example is at CCM's brewery in Tecate, located a short drive from the U.S.-Mexico border on the Baja California peninsula.
